1. Technical Field
The invention relates to a device for turning double-sided information carriers, such as Compact Discs, in an apparatus having at least one tray carrying an individual information carrier and removable from at least one function unit, such as a magazine and/or a playback/recording drive.
2. Background Art
A conventional turning device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No.5,247,408 and is arranged on a carrier movable in the vertical direction by a transport mechanism and on which are provided two conveying means for conveying trays carrying Compact Discs (CD's) into and out of a magazine and/or playback/recording drive. A gripper enables the removing/inserting of the CD's into and out of a storage recess of the tray. The trays are permanently assigned to the magazine and to the playback/recording drive, i.e. they cannot be removed from their receiving compartments. The turning device has a motor-driven drum horizontally aligned in its rotary axis that is rotatble or swivelable. On the front of the drum, the gripper is arranged on an eccentrically mounted holder. The gripper is disposed on the holder arranged transversely to the conveying direction of the tray and disposed either above or below this tray in the rotation center point of the inserted CD, such that by lifting or lowering the gripper by means of the transport mechanism the CD is grippable through its central hole by the gripper and removable from the storage recess of the tray. In order to perform a removal/insertion from underneath the tray, each tray has on its bottom an open slot extending from the central hole of the CD in the conveying direction of the tray, such that the tray can be freely moved into and out of the vicinity of the gripper when the CD has been gripped and lifted.
The disadvantages here are that the transport mechanism must be more powerful since both the turning device and the two conveying means must be conveyed or activated. The second conveying means is necessary because the CD is gripped from both above and below, and the apparatus's configurability is restricted, since the turning device is a non-changeable part of the transport mechanism. A further drawback is that for turning a CD, it must be picked up by the gripper either from above or below, and then lifted. The tray must then be conveyed by the lower and upper conveying means, before and after turning of the CD, into and out of the magazine or playback/recording drive, which entails a complicated and time-consuming operating sequence.
A conventional turning device is disclosed in European patent EP-0 717 405-A2 and is arranged on a carrier movable by a transport mechanism in the vertical direction and having a turning frame. Two conveying means are also arranged on the carrier. The first conveying means is used for conveying trays carrying Compact Discs (CD's) from at least one magazine and/or playback/recording drive to the turning frame. The CD-carrying trays are individually removable from the receiving compartments of the magazines and transportably held inside the turning frame to the playback/recording drive(s) and back by the transport mechanism. The second conveying means is intended for conveying an empty tray arranged upside down underneath the magazines to a position above the CD-carrying tray in the turning frame, such that when the turning frame swivels by 180.degree. transversely to the conveying direction of the tray the CD is transferable under its own weight from a tray which is then on top to a tray which is underneath it.
Drawbacks of such an arrangement relate to the transport mechanism being configured more powerfully on account of the additionally transported turning device with two trays and the two conveying means. Also, a second conveying means is necessary since the empty tray must be conveyed up into the turning frame. Furthermore, the apparatus's configurability is restricted, since the turning device is a non-changeable part of the transport mechanism. A further disadvantage is that an additional empty inverted tray with an additional receiving compartment in the vicinity of the magazines or playback/recording drives is necessary, and that the trays of the magazines and of the playback/recording drives must be of identical design to assure their interchangeability.